| Beyond One Voice |
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Recent government policy has highlighted the importance of participation and engagement and local authorities are now seen as pivotal to the involvement of local citizens in civic life. Alongside this, there is an expectation that local government and the third sector will work together, both to improve public services and to foster the wider development of civil society. This crucial relationship between the sectors requires effective arrangements for views to be collected and communicated. However, in practice, the challenge of ‘representation’ in the third sector continues to vex and confound practitioners. Local authorities advocate streamlined arrangements, with many encouraging local organisations to ‘speak with one voice’. Third sector organisations counter this with arguments in favour of more pluralist arrangements which can accommodate the diversity and difference of the sector and the many voices that need to be heard. Neither side of this debate has the magic solution to an area which is complex and contested. Full Document Here |
